Strength And Sand
by Feilyn
Summary: Written for 1sentence on lj. Fifty themes on love, loss and what one can find in another if one really looks.


_I know Gaara is a tad OOC, but think of him after he's had Shukaku removed and is more rehabilitated. Also, most of these centre around the idea that Gaara and Sakura are in an established relationship._

_Hope you enjoy!_

xXx

**01: Ring**

Her voice rings, echoes in Gaara's head, reaching down and touching a part of his soul he wasn't aware existed.

**02: Hero**

It's redemption Gaara seeks, not heroism but for reason she makes him want to save a world he used to hate.

**03: Memory**

Sakura's memories can't compare to any of Gaara's but nonetheless it's he who's holding her when nightmares haunt her sleep.

**04: Box**

Despite the efforts he's made to atone, people still like to box Gaara into that word (monster), but Sakura finds no problem in correcting this perception with her fists.

**05: Run**

Her hand is on his cheek, her thumb gently caressing the line of his jaw and Gaara roughly shoves down the urge to run.

**06: Hurricane**

She tore back into his life like a remarkably organized hurricane, messing with head (even worse, with his heart); when she was through with him, everything had switched around and been set down so neatly it felt like nothing had changed (but it had).

**07: Wings**

As a child, Sakura always wanted wings; as an adult, Gaara made her fly in a rather different way.

**08: Cold**

"You've never seen snow before, never had a snowball – hey, what are you – Gaara, Gaara, don't you dare – mmph!"

**09: Red**

He sees red and for a moment thinks it's the blood she's drenched in before he figures out that it's _rage_; it takes her hug and a whispered 'It's not mine' for him to see normally again.

**10: Drink**

Gaara raises a non-eyebrow and quirks his lips in what could be a smile as Sakura stumbles against his chest and starts to laugh uncontrollably – sake, he muses as her mouth crashes onto his quirked lips, doesn't taste so bad after all.

**11: Midnight**

Under the harsh Suna sun, Sabaku no Gaara is Kazekage – it's in the cool of midnight that he is Sakura's.

**12: Temptation**

Many of the Suna villagers would like to claim that their Kazekage is above and if they'd hoped for it to remain that way they really shouldn't have waved it in front of Sakura – he never really had a hope in hell.

**13: View**

It's strange how two people who grew up so differently can still share the same view – that of each other.

**14: Music**

The only music he ever enjoyed as a child was that of his victims dying screams – Sakura gives him a Look as soon as the words are out of his mouth and drags him off to piano lessons.

**15: Silk**

He heard the creak of leather as she clenched her fist – no silk evening gloves for this woman.

**16: Cover**

Sakura is one of those people who can't get to sleep unless there is _weight_ but the blankets in Suna are unnecessarily scratchy and this is how Gaara finds his body being draped strategically over that of his lover's.

**17: Promise**

He made a promise to protect his people that _must_ be kept even though his heart is tearing itself to pieces as she falls to the Akatsuki onslaught.

**18: Dream**

Having only just trialled the sleeping thing, Gaara expressed confusion over this _dream_ phenomenon and why it sometimes made him wake up with too-tight pyjama pants – Sakura was only too happy to explain.

**19: Candle**

In the end, Sakura can't light the candle to guide _their_ souls (Naruto, Sasuke, her _team_); she collapses against Gaara as he does it for her as she silently shakes from the force of tears she refuses to shed.

**20: Talent**

"I have a talent for killing things," Gaara states flatly, earning himself a whack over the head from Sakura who then assures the diplomat that he's only joking and has a rather lovely singing voice (liar).

**21: Silence**

His silence is unnerving and she rambles faster and faster until she can't take it anymore and presses their lips together to shut herself up.

**22: Journey**

Three days in theory doesn't feel that long; in practice, when Konohagakure is under attack and Gaara _knows_ she will be at the front lines, those three days are an eternity too long.

**23: Fire**

You can't tell by looking at his stoic form, but the fire is there in Gaara – it just has to be found and well, Sasuke wasn't the only genius on Team Seven.

**24: Strength**

Her strength is not just in the power of her fists, he muses; it is in the way she cries unashamedly at the end of Team Seven, in the way she stands, proud that she survived.

**25: Mask**

"Can you feel anything through that mask of – actually, no, never mind; I want to find out by myself."

**26: Ice**

"You're the Kazekage, can't you _do_ something about this infernal – I don't _care_ if you only work with sand, I need ice and _you_ are going to get it for me!"

**27: Fall**

It wasn't surprising that she had caught him, but the fact that he had tripped in the first place was something they never spoke of.

**28: Forgotten**

Against the oxymoron (emphasis on the moron) that was Naruto and the enigma that was Sasuke, Sakura's intelligence tended to fade into the background, but it was something that Gaara never forgot – after all, it was her genius in healing his brother which drew that first inerasable line between them.

**29: Dance**

"Oh, come on Gaara, it was only danci – did you just _growl_ at him?"

**30: Body**

Her body was beautiful, true, but the first thing that attracted him to her was the way in which she looked at him without a trace of fear.

**31: Sacred**

In a world of ninja where nothing was sacred Gaara thought himself lucky to have found something (someone) that did a damn good imitation.

**32: Farewell**

He was secretly terrified of saying goodbye to her (never sure if the next time they meet one of them would be a corpse) and being Sakura she _knew,_ so she just stopped saying it.

**33: World**

Gaara's not her whole world and Sakura knows she's not everything to him but _that's alright _– in fact, considering how they live it's probably even smart (Sakura likes lying to herself).

**34: Formal**

The jounin inauguration was meant to be a formal occasion and it was tradition to screw with it as best one could – Sakura did spectacularly, accosting the visiting Kazekage about halfway through (her name went down in history for many things, but that was the biggy).

**35: Fever**

It was a fever dream, Sakura concluded, although she couldn't remember falling sick – there was no way the stoic Kazekage would stumbling his way through a love confession otherwise, especially not to her.

**36: Laugh**

The first time she heard it, it terrified her but Gaara's laugh has _changed_ now and she makes it her mission to have it reoccur as often as possible.

**37: Lies**

They never promised to return to each other because in their line of work, eventually one of them would be named a liar.

**38: Forever**

Forever is a myth that only crazies like Orochimaru believed in; however, Sakura and Gaara are quite happy to promise the rest of their lives (no matter how short that length of time may be).

**39: Overwhelmed**

"Shove over and let me help, _Kazekage_," she laughed, seeing the way he stared in abject horror (there was a slight tic in his eye) at the mountain of paperwork on his desk

**40: Whisper**

Their first kiss was like a butterfly's whisper and totally accidental; a mere brushing of lips as they bent over paperwork and tried to steal a glance at each other at the same time.

**41: Wait**

She refuses to be a soldier's wife waiting in the background because she _is _a soldier; many people know this but the difference with Gaara is that he would never ask it of her even if he didn't.

**42: Talk**

He can listen to her talk for hours on end, not only because he's interested in what she's saying (and he is) but because there is no fear in her voice when she does so (it makes for a nice change).

**43: Search**

"Gaara, I've lost my gloves again, could you help me find – hey, what are you – Gaara, put me down!"

**44: Hope**

Haltingly, he tells her he's afraid of hope because it hurts that much more after being let down; she thwaps him over the head and say that when it comes to her, at least, he's got nothing to worry about.

**45: Eclipse**

It's so hard not to be eclipsed by his shadow, but Sakura has been surrounded by giants her whole life and at least this one walks beside her instead of leaving her trailing behind.

**46: Gravity**

"Gravity's a bitch," she grouses, rubbing the sand burn on her leg from when he caught her, trying not to blush as he looks on in interest at the skin she bares to do so.

**47: Highway**

"You'll go nowhere fast with that monster, even if he is Kazekage!" her mother yells and not for the first time in her life, Sakura gleefully ignores her.

**48: Unknown**

Of course neither of them had known how it was going to turn out, but that was part of the adventure, wasn't it?

**49: Lock**

He meets with diplomats and locks his stunted emotions away behind a Kazekage blank face that her tiny smirk threatens to destroy.

**50: Breathe**

He stands beside the bed (their bed) and watches her sleep, captivated by the way her chest rises and falls, reassuring him that she is there and still alive.


End file.
